About to Set Sail

"You don't look nearly as dejected as Steel said you were."

Dago shifted aside to let Violet reach the table beside him.

Violet shook his head with a helpless look. "Even if I were at the same level as Baker, I still wouldn't stand a chance against him. Losing to someone like that was disappointing, but not nearly as much as you imagine."

He continued, "Do you know why the Thorn Ring held this internal competition?"

Dago shook his head.

"To narrow down the candidates qualified to go to the front line of the secret realm battlefield."

Violet looked at Dago. "Tower Master Undine sent you elsewhere so you'd miss the competition. It seems she never intended to let you go to the front line. Then again, that makes sense..."

Violet paused, then said with a trace of emotion, "You carry a powerful Old One bloodline, and your aptitude for wizardry far surpasses mine. Given time, you might reach Baker's level. What you need now isn't a chance to test yourself. It's time. Going to the front line would do you more harm than good."

"What is the front line of the secret realm battlefield?"

Dago frowned as he asked.

Only now did he learn from Violet that Undine had sent him to the Ice Fortress to seek "Bloodline Transformation" as a secondary goal. Her real purpose had been to get him out of the way—and, apparently, to protect him.

She had repeatedly insisted she wouldn't let him become a "greenhouse flower." What a hypocrite.

Violet nodded. "The front line is what we privately call the innermost core of the Mirror Forest. The Dusk Crystal Church, Thunder Tower, Black Marsh, Water Palace, Lava Brotherhood, and our Thorn Ring—

"The six major wizard factions of the southern Emerald Forest worked together